Dirty Dancing producer reveals how sequel will honour Patrick Swayze and answers AI question

The Dirty Dancing sequel will honour Patrick Swayze without resorting to AI.

Producer Nina Jacobson is leading the development of the highly anticipated follow-up, which is yet to have a director on board, and she has opened up about how the film will handle Swayze, who played Johnny Castle in the 1987 original but sadly died from pancreatic cancer in 2009.

Speaking to Indiewire, she said: "That’s one of the things that you really have to focus on: how to let people mourn him in a movie.

"And don’t worry, we won’t be bringing him back with AI.”

The original Dirty Dancing saw Swayze's character wooing aspiring dancer Frances 'Baby' Houseman', who was played by Jennifer Grey.

She will be reprising her role in the sequel, which is set in the 1990s with a new set of young stars taking the lead.

Jacobson said: "Grey has incredible insights into why she thinks [Dirty Dancing] has lasted so much or what it is about her character that spoke so much to people and still does.

“We were talking about this with adaptations: a movie can’t be just like the book, or a show can’t be just like the book that you are adapting.

"But it should make you feel the way the book did, and it should feel the way the book felt. [We are] trying to chase the feeling of that original movie…

"Being able to tell a young love story that could take some of those risks but also inspire those feelings felt like an incredible chance for us.”

Jacobson worked for Disney in the late 90s and 2000s, working on the likes of Freaky Friday and The Chronicles of Narnia.

She saw Dirty Dancing as "very glossy entertainment", but the producer's outlook has changed over the years.

She explained: "Now it feels like kind of an indie. They take a lot of risks and they touch a lot of topics that people don’t touch in movies anymore...

"If you tried to just slip by an abortion subplot in a romantic movie now, I think you’d get a lot of notes on that.”

At the beginning of the year, Lionsgate announced Jacobson and fellow producer Brad Simpson would be oversee the film, with Dying for Sex writer Kim Rosenstock penning the script.

Jacobson and Simpson's company have been working with Lionsgate on The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, and the studio are delighted to have the Color Force pair on board for the Dirty Dancing sequel.

Lionsgate Motion Picture Group chair Adam Fogelson said in a statement: “Dirty Dancing remains as beloved today as it was upon its initial release, and we knew that a very special group of people would have to come together for fans to embrace a return to Kellerman’s.

“We are beyond thrilled to announce we have assembled the perfect team to carry this film forward in partnership with Jennifer Grey. There are no better producers for this movie than our longtime partners and friends Nina and Brad from The Hunger Games, and we could not be more excited to have Kim coming on board to write.

"With this super team now in place, we are moving full steam ahead so that both existing fans and new audiences can discover the magic, the music and the emotion that is Dirty Dancing in a new theatrical film meant for the big screen.”